14 Oct. 2015; Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Today we had to anchor as the dock was occupied. The Marina from Oceana Cruises had been assigned the berth, and as there is only one dock we had to go to anchor, and the anchorages off Monte Carlo are not that good. The water is on average very deep and that means you need to put out a lot of chain to get a secure grip on the sea floor. There is only one anchorage that is preferable and that one is located about 3/10^th. of a mile to the North East of the harbor entrance with an average depth of about 40 meters. Thus every large ship wants to be there.

We had one more cruise ship on the arrival list and that was the Costa NeoRiviera which is a ship that belongs to Costa but is operated as a sort of sub cruise company providing a cheaper product. It ships have the prefix Neo in front of their name.  This ship would be gunning for that anchorage spot as well.  To beat them to it, the captain decided to arrive very early in the morning. Then we would have a fair chance to get there first.  By 2 am we had the hook down and we commenced our tender service at about the time the other ship came in before 7 am.  Being closer to the port entrance gave a less wobbly ride as there was a low swell running in from the South East.

Swell is unpleasant in Monte Carlo as it runs ashore and then bounces back into the open sea. Then in the afternoon when all the “boys with toys” come out and start racing around, that creates even more swell. While most of them have the money they do not necessarily have the skills to operate these large power boats in such a way that it does not affect our tenders at the platform. Swell and toys together can cause a very nice wobbly sea. So the nearer you can get to the port entrance the better it is. That proved more than true today, even the short distance the captain managed to arrange by anchoring early, still caused quite a wobbly ride.

The Costa NeoRiviera is quite as interesting ship. It was built for Festival Cruises, which was a company that came out of nowhere with 3 old ships. Then the management found investors and in a fairly rapid tempo several new ships were built and came into service. They were in business between 1992 and 2004 and first had The Azur, The Bolero and The Flamenco. Then a new building process started and the Mistral arrived in 1999 followed by two slightly larger sisters the European Vision and the European Star. In 2004 the company went bankrupt and the ships were sold off. Two went to MSC and one eventually ended up with Costa as the Costa NeoRiviera.

The angle of the sun was wrong so I could not get my own photo. Hence one pulled off the internet. Source unknown.

Costa now has nearly all new built ships and most of them are from the same sort of design and thus look similar. The older units which include the Riviera, the Costa NeoClassica and Costa NeoRomantica have been put under a sort of subsidiary called Neo. The company advises that these ships sail to “unique destinations” and visiting Monte Carlo is part of that. At the same time they still carry the Costa name, so how that works for marketing and to avoid confusion is something I do not know.

We will sail from here at 18.00 hrs. and then head for Livorno which is just on the other side of the Ligurian Sea.  We were there a few days ago, same as here in Monte Carlo, but as this is a new part of the long segmented cruise, we will call at Livorno for a 2^nd time. I do not think that will matter very much for the back to back guests as the Livorno hinter land is too much anyway to see during one call. If the guests caught a glimpse of Florence during last call, they can now get a glimpse of Pisa. I am using the word glimpse, as getting a good impression of Florence will at least take a week.

We are expecting a sunny day in Livorno tomorrow as the last rain clouds are supposed to be gone by 07.00 hrs. Sunny with temperatures around 63oF / 17oC. But it is also forecast to be windy and wind is not nice for Livorno as it is a very tight hole to get into.